Renee Gadd

Gadd was born on a ranch in Bahía Blanca, Argentina in 1908 to immigrants from Jersey.[2] Her father Talbot Gadd was a railway executive who abandoned the family, after which they moved to England in 1913. Gadd lived with her aunt and began to study dancing, working as a chorus girl in Brighton by the age of fourteen. In 1924, she was cast in a production of Hassan by the powerful theatrical agent Basil Dean, after which she appeared in several musical comedies, then straight plays after becoming a member of a Shakespearian company at Stratford-on-Avon. She enjoyed a series of successful West End roles.[3] During this same period she acted, and had an affair, with Fred Astaire.[4]

In 1931 Gadd signed a contract with British International Pictures and spent two years making films for them. Finding the various comedy films she was cast in uninspiring she behaved uncooperatively until she was released from her contract.[5] In 1932 while working on the crime film White Face she began a tempestuous affair with her co-star Hugh Williams.[6] When her contract with British International expired in 1934 she followed Williams who had gone to Hollywood, but found he had a new lover. She appeared opposite him in the 1935 film David Copperfield, but returned to Britain the following year. Her career began to tail off and she appeared mostly in quota quickies and small roles in minor productions for the remainder of her career. Her final appearance was in the 1950 Ealing Studios film The Blue Lamp.[7]

• Sweet, Matthew. Shepperton Babylon: The Lost Worlds of British Cinema. Faber and Faber, 2005.

• Renee Gadd at IMDb
• Renee Gadd at the Internet Broadway Database